From lighting and heating to electrolysis and electric motors, electric power is employed in an ever increasing number of applications in residential, commercial and industrial sectors. This demand for electric power is met by a wide variety of electric power generation systems (“generation systems”) including coal and gas-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power stations and wind turbines. However, conventional generation systems have disadvantages. For example, some conventional generation systems consume nonrenewable fuels and/or have adverse environmental impacts such as associated pollution and/or hazardous waste. Some conventional generation systems avoid these disadvantages, but have other shortcomings.
For example, some conventional generation systems generate electric power based on renewable fluid streams such as wind, renewable water flows including tidal and wave-associated water flows, and geothermally heated fluid streams. Such renewable fluid streams may be naturally occurring or naturally assisted, and may have characteristics such as flow rate and power density that vary significantly and/or depend on geographic location. Such variability of fluid stream characteristics can present a challenge to designers of conventional generation systems, and some conventional generation systems are designed to operate efficiently and/or effectively only within a relatively narrow range of characteristic values. For example, wind quality available at different geographical locations may be classified by average power density or wind speed, and conventional wind turbines may require particular classes of wind to operate efficiently and/or effectively. Such limitations on conventional generation system designs may significantly constrain the geographical regions suitable for the generation systems and/or be associated with significant electric power transmission costs.
Some conventional generation systems attempt to expand the range of operationally suitable characteristic values by incorporating variable pitch turbines. However, variable pitch turbines can be significantly more expensive and/or less reliable than fixed pitch turbines. Some conventional generation systems attempt to expand the range of operationally suitable characteristic values by incorporating a mechanical gearbox. However, such gearboxes can be a significant portion of the purchase and/or maintenance cost of the system. Some conventional generation systems are custom manufactured to perform efficiently and/or effectively with respect to expected ranges of characteristic values at particular geographical locations. However, such custom manufacture can be significantly more expensive and/or require significantly longer to manufacture and/or maintain relative to designs amenable to mass production techniques.